Nichols parking deck may wait until 2010

Naperville's plan to construct a parking deck at the Nichols Library may be pushed back a year.

City officials say with other upcoming deck projects helping to meet parking needs, they are recommending the library deck be built in 2010 instead of 2009.

Additional parking decks and a 10th fire station were among the $394.2 million in projects over the next five years that city officials discussed at a capital improvements workshop Monday.

Roughly $103 million of the projects are for the upcoming fiscal year. New buildings and building repairs make up about 40 percent of the proposed expenditures followed by transportation-related projects, which constitute another 21 percent.

Projects are paid for through a variety of sources including impact fees, grants, taxes, utility funds and borrowing.

The city is planning roughly $43 million in parking deck projects over the next several years, including a 317-space addition to the Van Buren deck, a new 557-space deck on Water Street and a 520-space deck at the Nichols Library. The Van Buren and Water Street projects are both beginning this year.

Marcie Schatz, director of transportation, engineering and development, said that based on the additional spaces those two decks will offer and the time it will take for new retail developments to come on board, the city can wait until 2010 to build the Nichols deck.

The city staff will present its research on the subject to the city council at an upcoming meeting for further consideration.

Also on the list of proposed capital improvements is building a new fire station this year on the city's southwest side. This 10th station is estimated to cost just over $3.3 million in total and should help the department achieve its goal of responding to 90 percent of emergency calls within six minutes.

Last year, only 65 percent of the 700 emergency calls it received were within this time frame, according to Chief John Wu.

"Travel time is the culprit for that deterioration," he said.

The project includes purchasing a quint ladder truck to provide life support and ladder capabilities.

Several hundred additional capital improvement programs are also on the table, some of which are ongoing. Projects include:

• $453,000 for 59 security cameras to be installed along the Riverwalk and electric and water facilities

• $5.1 million for downtown streetscape improvements

• $310,000 to refurbish the police dispatch center

• $80,000 to install electronic signs at the entrance to the central parking facility to indicate whether spaces are available

• $28.4 million for improvements to the intersection of 75th Street and Washington

• $17.8 million for the Huffman Street storm sewer system

• $2.3 million for Bailey Road Bridge improvements

The city will hold the second part of its workshop at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at the municipal center, 400 S. Eagle St., to discuss the capital improvement needs of Naper Settlement, libraries, public works and public utilities.